If you could travel back in time you could nick the original mastertapes.

Maybe that's why they are missing!!

Ian Levine?

Will the missing episodes ever be found?, you would have thought that the BBC would have made copies of all the episodes before they were sent out, or had a list of countries that the episodes were sent to.

Copies were made and lists were recorded, but the tapes were chucked away once they'd been used and weren't needed anymore. All the stuff that has turned up since the mid 80s is stuff that should have been destroyed but survived because it got lost, misfiled, stolen, forgotten, etc.

Will they be found? No - the vast majority of what's missing will remain lost forever. Some of the rumours doing the rounds of 70, 80, 90+ being found are utter, utter nonsense. There'll be a few more back, sure, but people expecting much more than a couple of dozen more back max - EVER - are deluding themselves. Think you're going to be watching 40 missing episodes in a couple of years courtesy of Phil Morris? Think again.

And, yes, there is info about which country bought what and when, but it is far from complete. The fact that copies were sent on to other countries (bicycling) just complicates the issue. As well as that, some countries returned stuff they were finished with; some destroyed it; and some kept it (despite the fact they weren't allowed to). And even if they kept it initially, do they still have it? So saying, "Such-and-such an episode must exist in country x," is a rather inexact science.

At the time each episode was sold abroad a master 16mm telerecording negative (at least) would have existed at BBC Enterprises. They were not sending "the last copy" abroad. All episodes (except "Feast of Steven") existed at BBC Enterprises in early 1972. These were junked from then until 1978.

In any case, it was not Enterprises business to maintain the BBC's archive of programming - if the BBC required an archive of old Who (or, indeed, anything else), Enterprises was not the place for it. The BBC had decided that very little of their old programming was required in the long term, so most of it went. Swathes of it until the 1950s and beyond was never recorded as it went out in the first place; if they needed a repeat, they performed it all over again.

The "master" copies of most Who episodes were the original tapes - these were separate from the Enterprises copies (above). All these survived until March 1967, but all the b/w episodes were wiped/junked between then and late 1974. However, for a few, the "master" recording is a 35mm film telerecording (rather than a tape) and most (not all) of these survive to date. "Wheel In Space" 6 is one of those, for example; the film that survives now is the same film it was transmitted from in 1968.

So, to summerise, and encapsulate.... all episodes survived at the BBC in some way or another until sometime in 1972 except "Feast of Steven" which went in August 1967.

Depends. There has been alot of bullshit and lies lately. I just wish we would get a honest answer from Phil or the BBC but we wont because some people will sell episodes if found.

Like that other one that went missing. To be honest im bloody sick of it and wish we were told the truth and they just moved on.

Doesn't look like this has been posted here yet, but this book about PM & missing episodes should be available before too long:

http://obversebooks.co.uk/product/chasing-shadows/

At 2:45 in the morning, on June the 2nd, 2006, pirates stormed an oil rig off the coast of Nigeria. Eight workers were taken hostage. Four days later, all of them walked free… but one returned a changed man.

Seven years later that man re-emerged onto the world stage.

[....]

This is the story of a man named Philip Morris and his hunt for missing treasure. A story about his return to Africa to face his demons and the years he spent searching for lost television. It's a story of the world as it used to be and what it's become. A story of successes and failures, of politics, rivalry and money. It's about the priceless things that Philip Morris found on his search and the impact his discoveries had upon a subculture.


Yeah - that sounds like a really rational look at the subject. And, in any case, why does the subject need writing about - especially when the story has no ending as yet?

Nutter.... pass....

Gosh, they're using a remarkable piece of writing to promote that book.

Theres alot of rumours keep mentioning Power coming out November time. I reckon if nothing turns up this year that ll pretty much be it.

You said the same thing a month or so back, but offered no evidence of these apparent rumours.
It would be nice if mere wishful thinking would make Power magically reappear, but do you actually have any evidence to back up your assertion of rumours? I've heard nothing. Where are these rumours happening?

Same as marco polo. Thats what they are rumours.

It's probably the same source who used to wind-up Sammi Carter. Although the 'information' about a Patrick Troughton appearance turning up in a previously missing episode of Jim'll Fix It was comedy gold.

Well, who the hell knows... I'm reasonably agreeable to the POV that he's got a bit more, yet. I still stick to my "rule of thirds" theory that he'll have kept a bit back from the EW return, maybe one story or so (or equivalent) or possibly a bit more. That's the kind of person he is - he wants the adoration, and stringing things out seems to be exactly the sort of person he is.

Having said that, what the hell his remaining bits n pieces are, or when they are going to surface, is all up in the air, IMHO. It sure as hell ain't going to be 40,50,60 episodes or whatever the nutters at Planet Mondas currently theorise.

But one day the rumours about what is to imminently reappear are going to be right - that'll be at the point where large amounts of marketing (etc.) people at the BBC get involved as will happen in the run up to a release. It's just that, in waiting for the true rumour, we're going to be subjected to dozens of false bits of crap.

That wouldn't be a good idea, as you would have had to ask for permission first, otherwise the Police would have been called!

like what kirk and sulu did in tomorrow is yesterday.

Well...it's nice to see Ian Levine finally get a mention on the marketing material...